Skip to main content

Stay Golden, Ponyboy

You ever have one of those days where you feel golden?  Like, everything you did was pretty awesome and productive?  (You know, the opposite of anything that happens in our nation's capital?)

That was yesterday for me.  The whole day just felt good, you know?  I mean, most days I have pockets of awesomeness, but they're not usually connected and consistent.

First.  Bone-in chicken breasts on sale at the local Fareway.  For me, that means: practice chicken fabrication skills and make stock.


Making my own stock is always one of the most satisfying tasks I am currently aware of.  After a day of simmering chicken carcass, mirepoix, and other sundry seasonings, I froze 18 cups worth of stock this morning.  That's four and a half of those boxes of Swanson's...at a fraction of the cost.

The chicken breasts I fabricated went into a crockpot for yestereve's dinner, as I put my own spin on this chicken recipe (fresh mango, not dried, apple jelly instead of the chutney, plus other changes I'd make when I do it again).  Keepin' it simple, I served it over brown rice.

Then, I've wanted to try roasting cauliflower for some time now, and last night was the night.  Tossed it with some olive oil, drizzled with garlic and lemon juice, and baked it in the cast-iron skillet at 500 degrees for 20 minutes.


For dessert, I did a bread pudding (for some reason, I suspect I'm in the midst of a great love affair with this particular concoction).  This BP was inspired by citrus - orange marmalade, dried cranberries and golden raisins, and an orange-caramel sauce.


The final plating...and do you see the problem here?


THE PLATE IS MONOCHROMATIC!  Everything is roughly the same hue of off-white!  The curry-coated chicken adds a little yellow, and the cranberry bits provide color and texture in the chutney, but other than that...

I didn't even notice it until I plated it up.  Everything tasted wonderful, but I couldn't help wishing I'd done a green item.  Roasted broccoli, maybe?

Oh well.  It's like American poet Robert Frost said, "Nothing gold can stay."


Comments

  1. SherryMarch 21, 2014 at 4:50 PM

    No roasted brussel sprouts? Love roasted brussel sprouts.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Garden Party, Pt. 2

6:30 is too early for a Sunday, ne c'est pas?  Alas, that is the time I arose this morning, and while my body wanted to fall back asleep, my mind was already off and running.  So, up I got. Something tells me I'm going to regret this later...like when I'm trying to watch the new Avengers movie tonight. Last Sunday was my last day off, and that was only at my request.  There are no more days off in the foreseeable future, between the part-time bar job and the near-40 hour demands of the restaurant.  It's a hard-knock life, I reckon, but that's how it goes when you're in search of The Dream.  So we savor the tranquil moments while we can.  Like yesterday, for example.  By some stroke of excellent luck, it was just me and the youngest son in the house for a few hours.  I took him out for lunch, and then I made him do yardwork with me.  I showed him how to mow the yard, and he discovered it's not terribly fun nor easy.  Ah, yes. Tranq...
Post a Comment
Read more

Go Placidly

My food truck business started back up this past weekend, and from here until November, the weeks will be packed.  Sandwich-slinging Thursday-Saturday and bartending work Monday-Wednesday.  And Sunday, I guess, is the day to sleep in and hide in my house. Hiding out is the one thing I feel like doing a lot of these days.  My food truck's ReOpening wasn't the only thing happening in my hometown this weekend past.  A 13-year-old boy was accidentally shot and killed on Saturday and then yesterday, the police department busted one of the biggest meth labs in a long time. Both are tragic...one is a sad loss, one that will devastate a loving family for the rest of their lives.  One is tragic only because of the profound stupidity/ignorance/addiction of a few people who happen to be living in a town mostly filled with good-hearted, hard-working people. And if it's not drama at the local level, then there's the constant bombardment of news that seems to be vividly...
5 comments
Read more

Education Makes The Man(icotti)

First, a thing about our No-Restaurants experiment. This past weekend, we traveled with good friends to Kansas City to the Renaissance Fair. We made a pit stop at Gino's Italian Cuisine in Kearney, and I'm not exaggerating (much) when I say Brent and I both copiously salivated for days before the trip. It would be our first outing since the inception of NR. And really, the food was good...but I wouldn't say it was the most amazing meal of my life. And yes, both Brent and I spent some time on the toilet the next morning because of it. (Better on it than in it, I say) So, end point, the experiment continues (although, it seems less of an experiment now and more of a lifestyle choice). The kids agreeably are on board with continuing, so now maybe the challenge is to see how long we can go before we cave into the pressure/desire to visit a local eatery. Second, my obsession with purchasing food-related texts is nearly at a climax. I have not even finished with Marion Nest...
Post a Comment
Read more